Federal cuts could cripple regional airports

By Marion Blakey – President and CEO, Aerospace Industries Association, Washington Business Journal

Sep 4, 2012, 1:18pm EDT

Here’s what we know: business and tourism travelers continue to fly into the region at an increasing pace, and cargo deliveries remain robust as the regional economy expands. Unfortunately, massive budget cuts coming our way would have a negative impact on our regional airports and airports around the country – and that would mean a hard hit to the business community.

Indeed, last year Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Ronald Reagan National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport handled nearly 65 million passengers (1.2 million more than 2010) and nearly 919 million pounds of freight, express and mail cargo. These airports provide an important boost to our local economy, directly employing 1,842 workers and generating roughly $9.2 billion in business revenues.

Under sequestration as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011, the Federal Aviation Administration would have to absorb a $1 billion cut next year and similarly large cuts for each of the following eight years. A new study conducted for the Aerospace Industries Association by Econsult Corporation estimates these cuts could cost nationwide up to 132,000 aviation and aviation-related jobs in 2013, strip almost two billion pounds of freight capacity out of an air cargo system that is already buckling at the seams and sap $80 billion a year from our gross domestic product by 2035 if planned upgrades to the nation’s air transportation system are significantly delayed.

In the D.C. region, sequestration would hit airports hard. Longer lines, fewer screeners and fewer flight options would become the new norm. Senators and congressmen who frequently use our regional airports to return to their home states and districts will experience the consequences of sequestration, as well as thousands of business travelers.

The former secretary of the Transportation Department, Norman Mineta, succinctly sized up the fallout like this: “If sequestration is not stopped, it will be by far the most devastating budget cut to the FAA in its 54 years. The FAA is a critical safety organization that regulates our national air transportation system. Putting it at risk is folly beyond comparison.”

By Marion Blakey – President and CEO, Aerospace Industries Association, Washington Business Journal